Clutch-nail



(No Model.)

H. DB HAVEN. CLUTCH NAIL.

N0. 417,313. Patented Dec. 17. 18819.

Zia anion UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HUGH DE HAVEN, OF OAK DALE, MISSOURI.

C'LUTCH-NAI L.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 417,313, dated December 17, 1889.

Application filed June 26, 1889. Serial No. 315,660. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HUGH DE HAVEN, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Oak Dale, in the county of Shelby and State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Clutch-Nails for Fastening \Vooden Boxes, Packing-Crates, and Packages, especially those used in the shipment and transportation of goods, wares, and merchandise of various kinds, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in metal clamps or fasteners which are used for securing wooden boxes, shipping-crates, and similar packages, and which are usually applied to the corners of the same when packed, and serve the purpose particularly of securely holding the top, end, or cover to the body of the package, and are specially adapted where the material of the case is light and thin.

The objects of my invention are, first, to provide a fastener which can be applied to packages or boxes made from thin light wood without splitting the material; second, to provide a cheap and efiicient substitute for the ordinary boX-strap; third, to meet the demand for fastening the butt-board when the same is split by repeated nailing; fourth, to provide means where a box is sprung by heavy packing that will hold and not pierce through the case and damage goods, and, fifth, to provide a quick means of holding split boards in a packing-case together. I attain these objects by the device illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved clutch-nail as it appears lying bottom upward, and showing at one end a concave and pointed barb and on the other a fishhook-pointed barb, and. provided at the extreme ends with a turned-down triangular point or tongue. Figs. 2 and 3 are views which show a modification of the end intended to take the place of the triangular points. Fig. 4. is a view of my clutch-nail driven in place upon the corners of the body and top of a packing-box. Fig. 5 is a similar view in cross-section on line 5 5, Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a form of clutch-nail for use on very light packages.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

I11 making my clutch-nail I use a blank of sheet-iron or other metal, usually from about half an inch to one and a half inch in width and of any desired length, commonly from two or three inches upward. I place the blanks thus prepared in a die-press having dies formed to make the barbs in either of the forms shown, and by one motion of the press the barbs a a and tongue at (or the latters substitutes B B, Figs. 2 and 3) are formed, and my clutch-nail is complete and ready for use. In applying the same to a shipping case or pack age all that is necessary is to place itabout midway of its length at the edge or corner of the case or package, and by a blow from a hammer sink the barb of one end into the wood, then bend it around the corner at an angle, and with another blow sink the other end into the box or package, and the end is secured.

The form of clutch-nail shown in Fig. 6 is made of two pieces of wire twisted together near their ends, the latter being turned down to a point a at right angles with the body of the nail, thus forming a barb a. is specially useful in tobacco-pails, crackerboxes, and the like.

By the use of my herein-described clutchnail the tendency of a closely-packed case to spring open at the top is overcome, the grip ping and holding of the fastener taking the strain transversely from the barbed points at its ends and distributing it through the body of the same, the result of which is to have a holdingpower in the fastener equal to its tensile strength.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

As a new article of manufacture, the hereindescribed clutch-nail, consisting of fiat metal or wire provided with the barbs having triangular, concave, and pointed or fish-hook ends, all substantially as shown and described, and for the purposes specified.

HUGH DE HAVEN.

Vitn esses:

S. S. MERRILL, \V. M. HEZEL.

This form 

